InFocus Vision 3 review: Good battery and design but average in performance

Design

2017 has been the year of bezel-less smartphones. Adhering to the trend, InFocus Vision 3 also flaunts a full-screen design and thin bezels around the display. This design of trimmed bezels around the display initially started with the high-end and premium market segment but it gradually trickled down to the entry-level devices and there came the InFocus Vision 3. The smartphone has a sturdy plastic design and the antenna lines run along the top and bottom of the rear panel. Similar to any other metal smartphone, this one is also slippery and does not offer a good grip when held.

Well, the smartphone's full-screen design has paved the way for a taller display that has made the bottom bezel too narrow to house the physical home button. Such a display has left the company with no other choice than to move the fingerprint sensor from the front to the rear of the device. While the other full-screen design smartphones have reduced bezels around the screen, the side bezels on this one are pretty much noticeable and not very thin.

At the rear, the InFocus Vision 3 has a design that is reminiscent of what we have seen on many smartphones. The smartphones features a dual camera setup at its rear and the two lenses are stacked horizontally at the top left corner. Towards the right of the camera module is the LED flash unit. The circular fingerprint sensor is also seen at the rear. There is the InFocus branding and speaker grilles are the bottom right of the rear panel.

There is a micro USB charging port at the bottom of the InFocus Vision 3 that also helps in data transfer. The top edge of the device features the 3.5mm audio jack. The volume rockers are seen on the left edge while the power button and the hybrid SIM slot are placed on the right edge.

On the whole, we feel that the design is new to the low-end market segment but it is not something that we have not seen before in the entry-level market segment, especially in the sub-Rs. 7,000 price bracket. Though the overall design is good with curved edges, the device gives us a plastic feel even though it has a metal back cover.

Displa

InFocus Vision 3 bestows a 5.7-inch HD+ On-Cell display with a resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels and 18:9 aspect ratio display. This display is definitely larger than the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio screens and has a higher screen-to-body ratio of 82.4%. By saying larger, we mean that the screen is taller as well as wider and will come in handy while using the deice in the split-screen mode. Given that not all the apps support the 18:9 display, many apps still display black spaces at the edges.

The display is bright enough and quite responsive as well. We found that the display reproduces the colors almost accurately but not up to the mark and this is acceptable as it is a budget smartphone. However, brightness is something that is a major concern for many smartphone users and when it is good enough, the budget buyers might not have an issue with the color accuracy.

Camera

The smartphone comes with a dual camera setup at its rear. There is a 13MP primary sensor and a 5MP secondary sensor, both positioned horizontally at the top left corner of the rear panel. This is one of the highlights of the smartphone as it has brought the dual camera setup at Rs. 6,999.

The camera interface is impressive and there are many software functionalities. With the dual camera setup, the device supports bokeh effect and it does the job given to it good to some extent. The secondary 5MP sensor at the rear captures the depth of field information and blurs the background and highlights the subject. The issue is that the bokeh effect is rendered not too well and that again is due to the pricing of the smartphone.

The camera can capture good photos of acceptable quality given the lighting conditions are favorable. The camera has a noticeable shutter lag that takes a few seconds to process the device and save it in the gallery. The camera interface comes with options like Watermark that lets us add silly stamps, time and location info, etc., PIP aka DualFie mode that lets you capture from both the front and rear cameras at the same time, effects, and more. We can also click images in square mode for Instagram, circle mode, and more.

We like the DualFie feature that captures snaps from both the front and rear cameras and merges them into one shot. Also, the Multi mode is impressive as it can create a collage of four shots. It is quite appealing to see many camera modes in a budget smartphone.

The selfie camera is a 5MP sensor that can click good low light shots with the display flash. Also, both the front and rear cameras have the beautification feature for clicking picture perfect shots. Notably, the selfie camera can also add the bokeh effect to photos so that the subject is focused and background is blurred. But we do not personally like the bokeh effect that is rendered by both the front and rear cameras.

Performance

The InFocus Vision 3 comes employed with a quad-core MediaTek MT6737 SoC paired with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage space. Given that almost half the amount of RAM is used by the device and its software, the overall performance of the device gets slowed down. We experienced a long boot time that is one evidence for the same. Even the webpages take a few additional seconds to load.

The booting time was too slow that even our laptop too a lesser time to turn on. Also, the lack of performance is witnessed when playing intense games such as Shadow Fight 3. The device could handle simple games such as Brick Demolition like a cake walk.

The 4000mAh battery is a great feature that can keep the device powered up for almost a day without us being concerned about the battery life. We had 4G turned on and streamed music and videos and played games and still managed to get a backup of over one day.

Software

The InFocus Vision 3 runs Android Nougat out of the box topped with the company's Smile UX. While many smartphones in the budget price point have the stock Android experience, the InFocus phone has its own interface. The device lets users configure the navigation keys as per their convenience and there is a suspension ball for quick access to multitasking, screen lock and screenshot. There are gesture support for functions such as launching the camera and capturing a screenshot.

Verdict

After using the smartphone for a couple of weeks, we feel that the InFocus Vision 3 is one such device that is suitable for the buyers who are concerned about the amount they spend on the purchase. It does have the display, design language and battery life as its major assets but there are a lot of aspects that let it down. The performance is a downside for this smartphone.

At a price point of Rs. 6,999, the InFocus smartphone brings some goodies but we cannot expect everything to be great at such a low pricing. But we need to wait to know if the device will perform well in the market that is dominated by many other good players.